unrequited
by sankontesu
Summary: Imagine if even after Naraku was defeated, Kagome was still able to travel back and forth from the well, but Inuyasha and Kagome never confessed their feelings and even years later they're still doing this 'do they love me or not love me' dance. Told in 5 small parts.
1. pt 1

**_pt. 1_**

 _-This love is strong, so why do I feel weak?_

* * *

The realization that Inuyasha was in love with Kagome came as suddenly as a hand ripping through his stomach, and settled as naturally as the snow in the winter; cold and wet and uncomfortable.

But he brushed it away when he was next to her, pushing her buttons and hoping upon hope that the heart that hung on his sleeve would hide among all the other angry feelings that came to him so much easier.

"Is there something on me?" She asked while bringing up her hand to her lips to inspect them, completely oblivious to the heavy emotion that fell from his eyes as he stared at her.

"Yeah," he growled, turning around in a sudden onset of anger. "Stupid. And it's written all over your face." While suppressed adoration was carved like a composition into his.

He ignored the way her shoulders dropped and grunted as his nose slammed into the dirt with a single 'sit'.

* * *

 _The issue with holding back on what you wanted to say, and hiding everything that bubbled warmly your chest- was running the risk of watching the person you love run off with someone who wasn't afraid to say it first._

 _And that is why, with enough regret to flood the earth, Inuyasha retreated back into the well-house as another boy on the other side of the timeline put his hands on Kagome's waist and pulled her in for a kiss._

* * *

"Did he hurt you?" Inuyasha asked darkly after Kagome announced the ending of her four year long relationship, his eyes fixing on a far off point in her new apartment. The fresh paint on the walls stung his nose, but he didn't care.

"No," Kagome sighed, hanging her white coat on the hook that she found at a garage sale days after finishing her last year of med school. "I think I hurt him more than he hurt me."

Inuyasha grunted with approval and shrugged off his own robe, waiting for Kagome to crawl into the crook of his arms and settle there until she fell asleep.

She yawned and moved to his side. He felt her tears start to saturate into the white undershirt on his body, and stiffened.

"I thought you said-"

"I'm fine," Kagome murmured brokenly. "I'm not crying over Hojo."

"Then why-"

Her hands dug into the fabric of his shirt as she held back a sob, her breath brushing against the bare skin of his collar. " _Another stupid boy_."

* * *

 **A/N:** _I know, I know. I'm still updating Feudal World and GiC, but I have this quick 5 chapter ficlet series typed up already so I'm going to post it. Love you guys._


	2. pt 2

**pt 1.5**

 _-When I wake from dream; tell me is it really love?_

* * *

"I thought she was going to marry Hojo for sure." Shippo shook his head and crossed his arms.

Inuyasha felt like someone had ripped the spine from his back and he sunk to the forest floor fluidly, supporting himself on the back of a tree.

"You okay?" Shippo- now too tall to balance himself on the half-demon's shoulder- jumped from the branch above him to peer at Inuyasha from under his bangs.

"I'm fine, brat." Inuyasha said peevishly. And then after a moment- "I thought she was going to marry him too," with an unavoidable sigh of relief.

"It's been a couple of years now," Shippo prodded with a careful gaze. "Shouldn't you just tell her?"

"Tell her what?" Inuyasha got up quickly and stomped back to the village with a stomach full of knots.

* * *

"Should we invite Inuyasha?" Ayumi questioned with wide innocent pools of mahogany.

Kagome's body tensed up and she snapped the led in her mechanical pencil. "To the birthday party?" She chewed on her lip and settled her cheek into her right hand. "Are you sure we should even have one? It's going to make a mess of my place."

"Of course we're having one!" Yuki yelled, and was promptly shushed by the librarian. "These past few years you keep cancelling on us planning one, and now you have no excuse." She poked Kagome in the forehead to force her eyes to lock on her. "No school, no clinic rounds this weekend, _we're having one_."

"I know," Kagome chuckled swatting her hands away. "Geez, it's like I'm having a birthday party more for you guys than for me."

"What else are friends for?" Ayumi smiled warmly, "If not to impose our wants for partying onto others."

They all laughed and were hushed again.

"So…Inuyasha?"

"I'll invite him," Kagome sighed, continuing to scribble some notes into her medical journal. "Just don't say anything if he stands in the corner glaring at anything that moves."

"Maybe we can get him loose," Yuki shot her a suspicious look. "And finally get him to kiss you properly."

Kagome squeaked and dropped her pencil completely to the floor. "He doesn't-"

" _Doesn't like you like that_ ," Ayumi parroted like she had heard the phrase too many times to count.

Kagome swallowed and then slammed her book close. "Coffee break?"


	3. pt 3

**_pt. 2_**

 _-I fall in love whenever we meet_

* * *

Kagome purposely changed the date of her birthday party to a moonless night, specifically so that Inuyasha wouldn't need to worry about hats.

He did however have to worry about her friends pointedly expressing their confusion when they noticed the color of his hair though.

"He hasn't had a chance to dye it back to silver," Kagome excused cleanly, like she had been rehearsing the line all week. Her gaggle of friends nodded with echoing _'ohh's_ ' and moved back to the designated dance floor.

"Dye…it?" Inuyasha mumbled quietly and turned to look at Kagome for answers. He's learned to wait for her explanation before jumping to any conclusions- although sometimes he'll still jump to the conclusions anyway.

Kagome winked at him and he felt her hand tap his chest, "Don't worry about it."

When she pulled away she got another chance to inspect him from the bottom of his jeans to the top of his black polo collar, and felt a balloon of pride inflate in her chest. "You look good."

"What?"

Kagome made a small 'o' with her mouth and moved away quickly, as if she hadn't intended to say that out loud.

"Hey Kagome," Inuyasha pursed his lips. "Get back here!"

The music pulsed through the shell of his human ears and drenched him with foreign beats, pulling and reaching into his bones. He had heard Kagome's music a handful of times, but never this loud, and never like this. He was momentarily distracted and pinned to the wall as he let the sounds overwhelm him.

But when he flashed his gaze back up towards Kagome's location, a rage bubbled up from his belly so acute and familiar he almost growled.

He knew shouldn't have accepted the invitation.

Especially on his human night, when all his thoughts and feelings practically projected like miasma out of every pore; pricking his eyes, jaw, and heart.

The streak of jealousy that shot through Inuyasha veered into silent misery when Kagome accepted two cups from s tall light-haired man with a smile, and paused to listen to the stranger for a minute more before walking back towards him.

"Who's that?" He asked over the music, trying to maintain whatever casualness was left of his tone when she finally reached him and pressed a cup full of mysterious red liquid into his sweating palm.

Kagome crinkled her nose as if she had already forgotten, and nodded once she had realized what he was referencing, "Oh him? That's Akira."

"Um…" Inuyasha rubbed the back of his head with a frown. "A Boyfriend?"

"What?" Kagome recoiled in confusion. "No. No, hardly even friend."

Inuyasha licked his lips and looked down at his closest friend and smirked, "So I look _'good'_?"

Slow heat spread through her body at the brashness of his comment, "Better than usual is all I'll say."

"I want to take all these clothes off."

Kagome had taken a mouthful of punch and promptly spit it all back into the cup. "W-what?"

"They're so damn tight!" Inuyasha pulled at the seam of his crotch comically, and scratched his armpit. "And itchy!"

"Oh," Kagome blew the air out of her cheeks and glanced down at his pants. "The belt is probably just too tight." She peered suspiciously at the closed door to her room and curled a finger through the loops of his jeans, pulling him in gesture to follow her. "Come on."


End file.
